Scribd Launches a “Netflix for Comics”

Somewhere inside Scribd HQ is a whiteboard which says "Go big or go home". Not content with launching the first global Netflix for books, Scribd expanded its monthly subscription ebook service by adding audiobooks in November 2014 and then expanded again today with the addition of 10,000 digital comics.

Scribd launched what is arguably the first* Netflix for comics on Tuesday. They've added more than 10,000 comics and graphic novels from a wide variety of publishers, including IDW/Top Shelf, Zenescope, Marvel, Archie, Boom! Studios, Dynamite, and Valiant.

Readers can now pay a flat $9 a month for access to all of the ebooks, audiobooks, and comic books they can consume from a catalog of over 1,000,000 titles. And besides just adding the titles, Scribd also put thought into how you would want to navigate. Readers can traverse the new digital comics section in a variety of ways, including by character, series, or curated collection.

Scribd isn't the first to offer a subscription digital comics service. There is of course Marvel Unlimited, which is limited to Marvel titles, but there's also Comicsfix, which launched last September. This service costs $10 a month. It doesn't have titles from Marvel or DC, but it does carry comics and graphic novels from many independents, including Valiant, Dynamite, Alterna, and more.

But with a million titles spanning several formats and three of the five major US trade publishers, Scribd is arguably the largest service. And thanks to the $22 million in capital raised in late December, it's also the best funded.

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Nate Hoffelder is the founder and editor of The Digital Reader:"I've been into reading ebooks since forever, but I only got my first ereader in July 2007. Everything quickly spiraled out of control from there. Before I started this blog in January 2010 I covered ebooks, ebook readers, and digital publishing for about 2 years as a part of MobileRead Forums. It's a great community, and being a member is a joy. But I thought I could make something out of how I covered the news for MobileRead, so I started this blog."